The number of Cullman County residents applying for unemployment dropped below 1,000 for the first time in three weeks, bringing the total number who have applied for benefits to more than 5,100. A month ago, only 25 Cullman residents had filed for unemployment.

According to the Alabama Department of Labor, 890 people filed initial claims for unemployment insurance. Two weeks prior, Cullman County saw its highest number of initial claims, 1,625, since the COVID-19 crisis began.

Amidst the dismal numbers, though, several Cullman businesses and industries are still hiring. JELCO and HomTex, for example, have retooled their operations to provide personal protection garments for COVID-19 protection and are seeking additional employees to ramp up production of gowns and face masks, respectively.

Walmart, too, is seeking more employers for both its distribution center and retail stores because of coronavirus driven demand.

David Brown, president of the 25-year-old American Classics t-shirt company, is looking to hire three to five more people to join the 43 current employees at the Hanceville plant. With stores closed, more people are shopping online.

“We do a lot of direct to consumer, so we ship to Amazon and we ship to Zulily, which is our number one customer,” he said. “And then just a lot of online retailers, we drop ship for them.”

“We’re an apparel printing company, so we need people to pull orders, pack orders and even print orders,” he said.

Brown said another factor driving their need for employees is that some have chosen to take unemployment from the state and $600 per week from the federal COVID-19 relief package.

“Lord, nobody in Cullman makes that much money,” he said.

The Alabama Department of Labor on Thursday warned workers against using this tactic. Not returning to work when there is available work could be considered a “refusal of work” and could potentially disqualify claimants from receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

“It’s important for workers to know that if their employer reopens or otherwise calls them back to work, they must do so, unless they have a good work-related cause for not returning,” said ADOL Secretary Fitzgerald Washington. “Quitting work without good cause to obtain additional benefits under the regular unemployment program or CARES Act programs qualifies as fraud.”

Brown said they have been reporting to ADOL that the company is open and operating.

Within the 29,000-square-foot facility, the company is practicing social distancing, providing hand sanitizer and disinfecting every night.

Brown said the ideal candidate to work at American Classics is one who shows up to work on-time and pays attention to details.

“You’ve got an order with 100 shirts on it, and they’re all different sizes and different colors so you’ve got to be diligent enough to go in there and pull the right size and the right color,” he said.

Other local companies looking for employees include River Valley Ingredients/Tyson, WestRock, Lowe’s and AGCOR, according to the Cullman Economic Development Agency (CEDA). A search of job postings in the past few days also shows several retailers and fast-food restaurants are looking for workers.

“I think many people who are out of work and struggling financially will be excited to learn there are companies hiring today,” said CEDA Director Dale Greer. “Currently, there have been climbing unemployment claims due to layoffs. This does not mean that under the present situation that individuals are losing jobs permanently; however, we do not know what the future of the economy holds. Knowing that many of our industries and business are actually hiring gives those who are in an area of long term financial uncertainty options for employment.”